So another new year has dawned, you have things in your life you'd definitely like to change, but you know from long experience that traditional New Year's resolutions aren't going to get you very far.

Everyone has a role to play in a performance transformation. The role of CEOs is unique in that they stand at the top of the pyramid and all the other members of the organization take cues from them. CEOs who give only lip service to a transformation will find everyone else doing the same. Those who fail to model the desired mind-sets and behavior or who opt out of vital initiatives risk seeing the transformation lose focus. Only the boss of all bosses can ensure that the right people spend the right amount of time driving the necessary changes.

David Hain's insight:

Transformation doesn't happen from the top - but it never happens without the top! 4 key roles for CEOs.

n the early 1990s, Barnes and Noble superstores changed how we shop for books. A few years later, Amazon was transforming how we shop for and purchase books, which then transformed how we shop for everything. Blockbuster changed how we watched movies; Netflix and other streaming services transformed and utterly upended how we watch movies.

Those and other examples like them also illustrate the possible ramifications that exist when comparing change and transformation. Barnes and Noble has survived, but barely. Blockbuster went under years ago. By contrast, Amazon and Netflix have grown and flourished.

Many people sense that the way organizations are run today has been stretched to its limits. In survey after survey, businesspeople make it clear that in their view, companies are places of dread and drudgery, not passion or purpose. Organizational disillusionment afflicts government agencies, nonprofits, schools, and hospitals just as much. Further, it applies not just to the powerless at the bottom of the hierarchy. Behind a facade of success, many top leaders are tired of the power games and infighting; despite their desperately overloaded schedules, they feel a vague sense of emptiness. All of us yearn for better ways to work together — for more soulful workplaces where our talents are nurtured and our deepest aspirations are honored.

The premise of this article is that humanity is at a threshold; a new form of organization is emerging into public view. Anthropological research suggests that this is a natural next step in a process that began more than 100,000 years ago. There have been, according to this view, at least five distinct organizational paradigms in human history. Could the current organizational disillusionment be a sign that civilization is outgrowing the current model and getting ready for the next?

David Hain's insight:

"Humanity at a threshold"...Fred Laloux on one way of using organisations positively to take the right direction.

Those of us who work in the tech sector get excited about new innovations every day. It’s part of why it’s such a fun industry to work in. But the success of Johnson Controls tells us something important about the key to a long life in the tech sector. What matters is not technology by itself, but what technology can do for people.

David Hain's insight:

Nice case story about the ups and downs of corporate longevity and the need to embrace technology sensibly.

Caution is in order because "Agile Transformation" always is a roller coaster ride where you and your teams must hang on for dear life!

Now - before getting on to the Agile roller coaster band-wagon ask “Why do we need to do it?” first. Don't get on the newness rollercoaster until solid answers are articulated and a clear destination is envisaged as to "why" we need it.

David Hain's insight:

A cautionary tale about the power and possible problems of agile transformation in a complex world - plus a couple of excellent literary tips!

“Acknowledge the impediments to change and tackle them with cultural change from the top. Make sure those people you challenge to be the catalyst for change have the necessary knowledge of the business at hand, competencies, and respect from others. And empower them to win the battle.”

David Hain's insight:

This list on making change happen isn't new. But it's striking how often the same issues come up. Maybe it's harder than it looks...

Organizations reorganize all too often. This resets the culture changes of agile transformations. They are also expensive, and it is hard to attract and retain talent when they get tired of yet another reorganization.

There is a better way: incremental reorganization. It's like incremental Product Development for your organization.

David Hain's insight:

The easiest thing to change is the structure, so it happens endlessly. The harder one is the working dynamics, so that's rarer. Useful piece on which is the more effective here.

"Reorganize continuously" is a good philosophy however it's dangerous if their aren't some fundamentals in place like agreed behaviours and particularly accountability. Agility without accountability leads to trouble

The ultimate solution for many organizations looking to untangle their decision making is to become flatter and more agile, with decision authority and accountability going hand in hand. High-flying technology companies such as Google and Spotify are frequently the poster children for this approach, but it has also been adapted by more traditional ones such as ING (for more, see our recent McKinsey Quarterly interview “ING’s agile transformation”). As we’ve described elsewhere, agile organization models get decision making into the right hands, are faster in reacting to (or anticipating) shifts in the business environment, and often become magnets for top talent, who prefer working at companies with fewer layers of management and greater empowerment.

As we’ve worked with organizations seeking to become more agile, we’ve found that it’s possible to accelerate the improvement of decision making through the simple steps of categorizing the type of decision that’s being made and tailoring your approach accordingly. In our work, we’ve observed four types of decisions

In one of our most-read articles here on Leadershipwatch ‘What Does Change Mean to You?’ I describe how change always has been and always will be a natural part of our lives. We’ve dealt with change ever since we humans started to wander this globe. We have seen over and over again how it works, how we can turn it into a motivating, inspiring and successful experience instead of feeling burdened by it. But somehow some persistent myths about leading change are still alive. These myths hinder us instead of helping us. It is time we stop believing them.Let me give you a quick overview, some food for thought, and then hand it back to you:

The disciplines of change management and project management understandably cross paths throughout the execution of a project or initiative. Each brings necessary and critical structure for effectively implementing change and realizing results. Below are four tactical dimensions along which integration can occur. A fifth dimension is also mentioned regarding a common objective and how integration around results and outcomes drives more effective integration in action.

David Hain's insight:

Insightful and practical advice on managing change programmes form one of the best change consultancies I know of.

There is a system that can help us solve complex problems, and there is a way to do it that boosts our confidence in our decision-making capabilities and enables us to have conviction that our solution has a good likelihood of succeeding.

I created one: the AREA Method decision-making system. I initially developed it to help me do better at my work as an investigative journalist. I was searching for a way to better control and counteract my mental biases, those assumptions and judgments that help us every day when making small decisions but that don’t go away when we need to solve complex problems. I also wanted to better understand the incentives and motives in the other people I was dealing with.

Susanne Madsen is a project leader coach, trainer and consultant in London. She is the author of the books: The Project Management Coaching Workbook and The Power of Project Leadership. Based on her experience during the years with her own business, in addition to 17 years in the corporate sector, Susanne gives you her top 20 tips for you to be the best project leader ever.

David Hain's insight:

It's not rocket science - it never is - but theses are really good change manager tips!

One area so far relatively untouched by big data is change management. That’s not because there isn’t a problem to solve. The failure of major transformation projects to deliver the expected benefits is a well-documented phenomenon: many change programs simply do not achieve their business goals.

It’s time for that to change. The combination of predictive analytics, large data sets, and the processing power of today’s computers is starting to transform change management. Just as the discipline of marketing has transformed from soft to hard science in the past 20 years, so too will the practice of change. But before that can happen, we have to understand why data has failed to catch on in change management to date.

David Hain's insight:

Will big data transform transformation? It has the potential, do we have the nous?

On December 31st, 1929 the Indian National Congress, the foremost nationalist group on the subcontinent, issued a Declaration of Purna Swaraj, or complete independence from British rule. It also announced a campaign of civil disobedience, but no one had any idea what form it should take. That task fell to Mohandas Gandhi.

The Mahatma returned to his ashram to contemplate next steps. He needed to come up with something that would unite the Indian people, but not get them so riled up that it would lead to violence. After weeks of meditation, he emerged with an answer that impressed no one. In fact, it seemed like a joke. He would march for salt.

Yet it turned out to be a stroke of genius that would invigorate the movement for Indian independence like nothing else could and break the British hold on power. In doing so, Gandhi proved himself to be not only a potent spiritual leader, but also a master strategist. Today, there's still a lot we can learn from Gandhi about making change happen.

David Hain's insight:

Gandhi didn't start off a a 'saint', but he learned how too make change movements work!

Watson already helps nurses diagnosing cancer, 4 times more accurate than human nurses. Facebook now has a pattern recognition software that can recognize faces better than humans. In 2030, computers will become more intelligent than humans.

David Hain's insight:

Remember when your mobile phone was an irritating brick? Bet it isn't now! But it appears we ain't seen nothin' yet!

The Uncertainty Capability: The Secret to Preparing for the Next Disruption

Answering this question is important on both a personal and organizational level — and regardless of whether you are a technology company or an enterprise. The reason is that the critical capability is not the identification of the next disruptive force, but rather the ability to rapidly adapt to whatever disruption may come.

The reason that many industry leaders missed the significance of the Internet is that we are all subject to something called the “curse of knowledge.” Coined by a Stanford graduate student, it simply means that once we know something to be true, it becomes very difficult to both imagine that anybody else doesn’t know this truth and to break free of the box that the knowledge creates around us.

The current incarnations of Internet-fueled technologies have become our new reality. We understand how it works, we have made plans for the future based on that understanding and are therefore naturally hesitant to accept anything that may challenge that preconception. It is the curse of knowledge in action.

Innovation is happening at an unprecedented rate. It feels like technology is advancing faster than ever because it actually is. It’s happening in nearly every industry, from biotech to diamond mining, and not only are we seeing great strides when it comes to efficiency, affordability and access, we’re also seeing total disruption. New models are systematically uprooting the way we think and behave.

The term “disruptor” has developed a unicorn status in Silicon Valley. If you didn’t know better, you might think the Race to Disrupt was an extreme sport. I myself have been called a disruptor for removing sweeteners from flavored water and bringing attention to the epidemic of sugar consumption in the beverage industry. While I’ll admit I don’t hate it, I have to say: being a disruptor is not all glory. There are a few things you should understand about disruption. Here’s how to turn the world upside down.

No longer the exclusive domain of tech companies or IT departments, data has become a business driver in a just about every industry and line of business. Data drives business value in two ways: It grows top-line revenue as companies create innovative new products and services — even entirely new business models. And it increases bottom-line profitability — not just by streamlining processes, but also by automating the management of assets and end-to-end supply chain through the Internet of Things (IoT). As Gartner’s Andrew White stated in a recent blog post:

"Data and analytics is not about a dashboard or delivery of an analytic to the point of a decision! That is so yesterday. Data and analytics is more about reimaging the decision in the context of an outcome.”

To look at it another way, data has become currency, and businesses are finding innovative ways to monetize it. In fact, BCG estimates that big data and advanced analytics could unlock more than $1 trillion in value annually by 2020.

As you contemplate the introduction of artificial intelligence, articulate what mix of the three approaches works best for you.

• Are you primarily interested in upgrading your existing processes, reducing costs, and improving productivity? If so, then start with assisted intelligence, probably with a small group of services from a cloud-based provider.

• Do you seek to build your business around something new — responsive and self-driven products, or services and experiences that incorporate AI? Then pursue an augmented intelligence approach, probably with more complex AI applications resident on the cloud.

• Are you developing a genuinely new technology? Most companies will be better off primarily using someone else’s AI platforms, but if you can justify building your own, you may become one of the leaders in your market.

The transition among these forms of AI is not clean-cut; they sit on a continuum. In developing their own AI strategy, many companies begin somewhere between assisted and augmented, while expecting to move toward autonomous eventually

David Hain's insight:

AI is here already and growing exponentially. How should it fit your business strategy?

As advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning permeate every industry, will there be any jobs left to protect?

Philip E. Auerswald, associate professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, calls this question “The Great Man–Machine Debate.” In his engaging and wide-ranging book, The Code Economy: A Forty-Thousand-Year History, he seeks to answer it by reframing how we think about economic dynamics and progress. “The microeconomics you learned in college was generally limited to the ‘what’ of production: what goes in and what comes out,” Auerswald writes. “This book is about the ‘how’: how inputs are combined to yield outputs.”

David Hain's insight:

How will you handle the double-edged world of the code economy? How will you utilise human capacities?

It is an important question that does not get the attention it deserves. The corporate world is familiar with measures of organisational culture and engagement. Most of Australia’s largest companies have at some point pulled in an external research company to give them a picture of their current organisational culture. Some do it religiously every year to track changes.

These measures are helpful and paint a rich story of the cultural norms that exist. What happens after the report has come out is the sticky bit. Many a large company has received “this years culture score” and the response is somewhat predictable. There are rounds of workshops, pie charts and circumflexes are pawed over, some people get bonuses other lose them and then HR are left holding the baby of “improve the culture”.

Some companies make great use of the data and use it to transform – but others end up thinking “I KNOW this…but what do I DO about it?”. The real question they are asking is: How did we get here and how is the culture continuously transmitted onwards?

Thankfully the fields of sociology, anthropology and psychology have been asking this question for decades. If you start looking harder you find that the famous philosopher – and one of the earliest psychologists – William James was asking this question in the 1850s. Even Charles Darwin himself strayed from naturalism into culture and pondered the way in which his principles of natural selection apply to cultural norms.

David Hain's insight:

Transformation needs culture, mindset change. Very useful science based article on how to engineer it.

A NEW commodity spawns a lucrative, fast-growing industry, prompting antitrust regulators to step in to restrain those who control its flow. A century ago, the resource in question was oil. Now similar concerns are being raised by the giants that deal in data, the oil of the digital era. These titans—Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft—look unstoppable. They are the five most valuable listed firms in the world. Their profits are surging: they collectively racked up over $25bn in net profit in the first quarter of 2017. Amazon captures half of all dollars spent online in America. Google and Facebook accounted for almost all the revenue growth in digital advertising in America last year.

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